The invention of the KWHIP INDEX

Man its hard to believe I hadn't the courage to post anything since Sept22.  So much has changed.  I will miss #11 terribly but I understand it was time.  Same with Byrd.  The hot stove was strife with talk of a Cole Hamels trade and it got me to start thinking about pitching statistics and how one might measure the effectiveness of a pitcher.

If you've talked pitching with me in the past you know I favor 2 stats:  WHIP and K/9.  WHIP because it is the counter to OBP and K/9 because it eludes to a pitchers "Stuff" and his ability to get out of trouble without involving the fielders.  Pretty big when you have a runner on third with less than two outs.

So I invented a new stat which I am going to call the KWHIP Index.  Very simply you take the k/9 and divide it by the WHIP.  The higher the number the more impressive the pitcher.  Here are some examples both current day measured against historical

Let's start with the Lefties:

Hamels has a KWHIP Index of 7.44 and Cliff Lee 6.35

Kershaw is 8.88
Bumgarner is 7.49
Price is 7.44
Lester is 6.43

Koufax was a 8.41

Notable Right Handers

Kyle Kendrick was 3.58 with the Phillies and our current #5 Buchanan is a 4.33

Scherzer is 7.88
Verlander is 7.41
Pedro was an astounding 9.49 that is HOF work right there.
2 Young guys with SSS and TJ injuries Matt Harvey and Jose Fernandez have 10.05 and 10.60
Clemons finished a long career with 7.33 and Nolan Ryan finished an even longer career with a 7.62

Relievers can have some insane indexes for instance Kimbrel currently sits at 16.39 and Aroldis Chapman is at 15.58

Our own relievers are doing quite well.  Giles sits at 15.99 (SSS) and Papelbon 10.08.

The all time saves leaders Hoffman and Rivera finished their careers with a 8.88 and 8.2 respectively.

So what's the point you say after all Greg Maddux and Bob Gibson were both HOF and had very low indexes 5.34 and 6.06.  I think the stat can have value in the minors scouting departments an area where you don't get to see a guy pitch but you can look up his numbers.

My aim is to apply this index to a number of pitchers in our system and see how that translates professionally.  So here it goes.  Here is what the KWHIP index says about some of our young talent in the system.  The caveat is I didn't do it for every pitcher:

PLAYER	KWHIP INDEX	LEVEL	IP	TEAM
Hamels	12.71	Minors	218	Phillies
Leibrandt	10.17	Minors	60.2	Phillies
Lively	9.93	Minors	192	Phillies
Imhof	7.05	Minors	42.1	Phillies
Biddle	7.01	Minors	552	Phillies
Arano	6.89	Minors	135.1	Phillies
Nola	6.85	Minors	55.1	Phillies
Mecias	6.66	Minors	149.2	Phillies
Gonzalez Severino	6.18	Minors	397.2	Phillies
Anderson Drew	6.01	Minors	148.2	Phillies
Windle	5.62	Minors	193	Phillies
Garcia Elniery	5.56	Minors	91	Phillies
Eflin	5.12	Minors	253.2	Phillies
Kilome	4.81	Minors	40.1	Phillies
Buchanan	4.33	Minors	518	Phillies
Kendrick	4.31	Minors	687	Phillies
Gueller	2.94	Minors	149	Phillies
Oliver	1.88	Minors	17.2	Phillies

Sample size is everything so we'll have to wait and see what Leibrandt and Imhof look like after 150+ IP.  I'm really excited by how Lively looks on this chart and not so much by Eflin or Windle.

We'll review this throughout the season and update at the end!